Email 734-994-4801 Website Tickets

HEADLINES Why you’ll love The Ring Ushers needed -- See The Ring for free! Dead Composers Society A²SO Family Series - Grow With Music

It’s hard to believe, but the start of the 2007-2008 season is just over a month away.  We have a fantastic season ahead of us, beginning with the phenomenal The Ring on September 29 at Hill Auditorium.  Check out the article below to learn eight reasons why you will love The Ring!

Amy Wright-Olsen
Marketing Director
Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra

CALENDAR

• The Ring, September 29, 8 pm, Hill Auditorium
• Dead Composers Society, September 29, 6 pm, location TBA
• Matinée Musicale, October 10, 1:30 pm, Jewish Community Center
• Bird’s Eye View, October 20, 8 pm, Michigan Theater
• KinderConcert, October 26, 9:30 am & 10:30 am, Ann Arbor Library Downtown Branch
• KinderConcert, November 2, 10:00 am & 11:00 am, Ypsilanti Library Whittaker Road Branch
  

1. You love huge, intoxicating music filling up a beautiful hall with incredible acoustics.Wagner used music as a means of conquering and entrancing. This phenomenal concert will fill Hill Auditorium with some of the most dramatic music in the classical repertoire.
   
   
2. Large numbers of vocalists blending with an orchestra makes you swoon.
   Vocalists from five area high schools join the orchestra for the choruses from Wagner’s Die Meistersinger and Lohengrin with the male chorus Measure for Measure providing the resonant bass.
   
   
3. You want to hear one of the most beautiful, difficult piano concertos ever written.
   Soloist Arthur Greene, UM piano professor and former artistic ambassador to Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia says, “With Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto we experience the ultimate in romance, sensuality, passion and perfection of musical form.”
   
   
4. You grew up watching Bugs Bunny cartoons.
   What’s Opera, Doc? Legions of kids and their parents have gotten to know Wagner with Bugs and Elmer Fudd. No one will know if you’re secretly picturing Bugs in blonde Brunnhilde braids or hear Elmer Fudd singing “Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit,” to the tune of Ride of the Valkyries. (See it on youtube here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=353hengg_aw)
   
   
5. Your high schooler attends Pioneer, Huron, Greenhills, Ypsilanti or South Lyon High School.
   We invite students at these five high schools, which are all represented in the Die Meistersinger and Lohengrin choruses, to attend this concert free of charge. Celebrate talented area high school singers!
   
   
6. You are a voice or piano teacher or student.
   Voice and piano teachers and students can get discounted tickets to The Ring.  Simply contact the A²SO office at 734/994-4801 to take advantage of this offer. Discount applies to any $24-$46 ticket; additional tickets for friends and family are available at regular prices.
   
   
7. Celebrate Ann Arbor
   The Ring is the first in a season full of local connections and collaborations. Local high schools, Measure for Measure and UM professor Greene all make this concert a great way to celebrate the extraordinary talent in our town.
   
   
8. One word: Tolkien.
   The connection between Wagner’s The Ring and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (obvious as it may seem) has been a bit hush hush. Tolkien himself said “Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceased,” but he did undeniably make an informal study of “Die Walkure” not long before beginning work on his Ring trilogy. Their relationship was further strengthened in the films, in which composer Howard Shore’s Wagnerian atmosphere drew from but didn’t copy the original.

The Ring is dedicated to Kyle Mills, the A²SO’s 31-year-old French hornist who died in a tragic plane crash in May. Kyle was on a leave of absence to play principal horn with Montana’s Great Falls Symphony when the plane carrying him and his fiancée Jenny Sengpiel to a tandem skydiving lesson crashed only moments off the runway. The lesson was a birthday present from Jenny to Kyle; they had planned to marry in August. Kyle was a native of Grand Rapids and a graduate of Indiana University and The Manhattan School of Music. Jenny was Great Falls' principal oboe and a member of the Chinook Winds Quintet.

The concert is cosponsored by Comerica and Kaydon with additional support from the MCACA.

<Back to Top>

The Ring is big, big, big!-- and we need lots of ushers to help seat patrons in Hill Auditorium. So if you don’t mind working for your music, give the A²SO a call at 734/994-4801 or email Caitlin@a2so.com and sign up to usher. You’ll see Wagner for free and as a special perk to our ushers, you can purchase up to two 50% off tickets for family and friends who aren’t usherly inclined.

<Back to Top>

Everyone 21-39 is invited to join the Dead Composers Society on September 29 at 6 pm for dinner (location TBA) and the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra performance The Ring at 8 pm at Hill Auditorium.

Dinner and the A2SO performance are included in the $26 ticket price. Tickets must be ordered in advance and are only available from the A2SO.  Contact Amy at 734/994-4801 or amy@a2so.com or go to http://www.a2so.com/events/series_concerts/ring/index.shtml to order tickets. 

See http://a2so.com/dead_composers.shtml for more information about the Dead Composers Society.

The Dead Composers Society is sponsored by Honigman, Miller, Schwartz & Cohn LLP and by LaSalle Bank.

<Back to Top>

Tickets to the A²SO’s Dickinson Wright Family Series are on sale now and brochures will be arriving shortly.  We send family brochures to a select mailing list, so if we’ve missed you, please give the A²SO office a call at 734/994-4801. All family concerts are on Sundays at 4 pm in the Michigan Theater except the Sing-Along, which is in the Bethlehem United Church of Christ.

Here are the four family concert offerings this season:

Beethoven Lives Upstairs   .  November 11, 2007  .  4 pm, Michigan Theater
This combination of story-telling and concert experience features two actors who tell the story of Beethoven renting an upstairs room from young Christoph’s family. The funny, true stories—such as Beethoven pouring water over his head and writing music on the walls—bring the composer to life. Music is magically woven into the drama in this program that won an Emmy Award for Best Children’s Program. Produced by Classical Kids/Pement Enterprises, Inc.  and cosponsored by the Benard L. Maas Foundation and Borders.

Beginning at 2:30 in the Michigan Theater, kids can make crafts with the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum and the Exhibit Museum, try out a kid-sized string instrument, join a Drummunity drum circle and hear a student ensemble from the Ann Arbor School for the Performing Arts.
http://www.a2so.com/events/family_concerts/beethoven/index.shtml

Sing-Along with Santa   .  December 1, 2007  .  4 pm, Bethlehem United Church of Christ
Here comes Santa Claus, right to the A2SO! We bring in the big guy himself for a Christmas show that’s full of holiday songs, storytelling and pictures of the kids with Santa. Complete with an interactive Twelve Days of Christmas and cookies after the concert.
http://www.a2so.com/events/family_concerts/sing_along_07/index.shtml

Babar   .  January 27, 2008  .  4 pm, Michigan Theater
This narrated concert guides children through two timeless stories. First up is the elephant Babar, who has delighted generations of children with his curious spirit and bright green suit. Babar’s musical adventure is filled with hope as he and his friends show children a life centered around family and community. Also hear the world premiere of U-M composer Andy Kirshner’s Sweet Music in Harlem, based on the book by Ann Arbor author Debbie Taylor. This piece is an action-packed romp inspired by Harlem’s jazz heyday that rejoices in the power of music to bring people together in wonderful, fun-filled ways. Beginning at 2:30 in the Michigan Theater, kids can make crafts with the University of Michigan Museum of Art and the Exhibit Museum, try out a kid-sized string instrument, join a Drummunity drum circle and hear a student ensemble from the Ann Arbor School for the Performing Arts.
http://www.a2so.com/events/family_concerts/babar/index.shtml

Carnival of the Animals   .  March 9, 2008  .  4 pm, Michigan Theater
A menagerie of family favorites! You and your kids will love the classic Peter and the Wolf and a new interpretation of the Carnival of the Animals with original poetry by nationally-honored Neutral Zone Slam Poets and student pianists. Actual whale calls highlight And God Created Great Whales and the world premiere of Stop, Drop and Listen is a fun new piece by Elizabeth Kelly that teaches good listening skills. Beginning at 2:30 in the Michigan Theater, kids can make crafts with the University of Michigan Museum of Art and the Exhibit Museum, try out a kid-sized string instrument, join a Drummunity drum circle and hear a student ensemble from the Ann Arbor School for the Performing Arts. Cosponsored by Borders.

http://www.a2so.com/events/family_concerts/carnival/index.shtml

<Back to Top>

Email creation and distribution by: